Tech in Asia » Vanessa Tanhttps://www.techinasia.com
Asia's Tech News for the WorldSun, 02 Aug 2015 10:31:58 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.3Jack Ma’s 3 tips to building a successful businesshttps://www.techinasia.com/talk/jack-mas-3-tips-to-building-a-successful-business/
https://www.techinasia.com/talk/jack-mas-3-tips-to-building-a-successful-business/#commentsMon, 06 Jul 2015 10:28:32 +0000https://www.techinasia.com/?post_type=talk&p=255784In a note that Jack Ma originally shared via Alibaba chat app Laiwang, Ma said that he was often asked if it is still viable to open a business on the Taobao marketplace. It is never easy to build a business, but what does Ma think are the critical elements to the path of success?

1. You need to be passionate about what you do

Only when you have the heart for your own products and services, you will feel grateful when users and customers feedback positively to you. Ma also believes that people who often feel grateful to others are better prepared for success.

I believe people who often feel the gratitute towards others are better prepared to succeed. It doesn’t matter if you fail at first, what really matters are the people who are interested in your products and services

2. Create and explore the same set of values shared with your customers

Once you have a general idea of how it should be done, think about how best to execute it. For small businesses, what makes you different? How do you create connections with your customers? He draws parallels between finding a customer who values your product to finding a soul mate.

Doing business is not simply about buying and selling, it is about creating and exporting the same set of values shared with your customers. Finding a customer who likes your product is as valuable as funding a soulmate.

3. Find ways to improve your products and services wherever and whenever you are

Ma believes that exemplary entrepreneurs grab every opportunity and constantly listen to customers’ and employees’ feedback. They fail fast and learn from mistakes fast. They also worked really hard to get to where Alibaba is today.

We are where we are today because we woke up early, we got off late, we did not sleep like a log, and we had much shorter holidays. We struggled day and night and picked ourselves up from disappointments and frustrations.

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/talk/jack-mas-3-tips-to-building-a-successful-business/feed/14No salary? No problem. Here’s how Luxola’s CEO brought her startup through tough times.https://www.techinasia.com/luxola-alexis-entrepreneur-video-interview/
https://www.techinasia.com/luxola-alexis-entrepreneur-video-interview/#commentsMon, 17 Nov 2014 02:20:25 +0000https://www.techinasia.com/?p=207028“Behind every beautiful thing, there’s some kind of pain.” Taken from a Bob Dylan song, this line has got to be the most apt description for cosmetics e-tailer Luxola’s current success.

When Luxola first started, there were months where founder and CEO Alexis Horowitz-Burdick could not pay herself or her team, as there was no predictability and stability in the business at that point of time. In certain months, the company would earn only S$10,000 (US$7,720), and S$50,000 (US$38,600) in another. Being the CEO, she naturally felt responsible for her team’s well-being. Fortunately, her colleagues believed in the company and the vision, and were willing to sacrifice and forgo their salaries for the bigger mission.

The secret to achieving that? An innate sense of trust in the company’s upper management. Evidently, trust is the big word that infiltrates every aspect of the fashion startup’s operations – from adopting an open office environment where the senior management sits with the rest of the team, to its careful product selection so customers can shop without worrying that the product they want to purchase is a fake.

Alexis’ advice to budding entrepreneurs who have set their hearts on starting up a company is to embrace failure as part of the process:

Don’t be afraid of failing. It’s not a big deal. It takes most people multiple attempts to have a successful startup. So fail quickly and get yourself back up again.

Chelaile, literally translated as “bus is coming,” is an app in China that allows users to track public buses in real-time. The startup just received a US$5 million series A round of funding from undisclosed investors.

Delhi-based logistics company Delhivery has raised US$35 million in series C funding led by Multiple Alternate Asset Management, with participation from existing investors such as Nexus Venture Partners and Times Internet.

Tokyo-based food delivery service startup Dely announced it has secured an undisclosed amount from Japanese seed investor, Anri. Dely last raised from Beenos in July, with participation from East Ventures and Party Factory. (Disclosure: East Ventures is also an investor in TechinAsia. See our ethics page for more information).

Personal drone maker XAircraft announced a US$20 million series A funding round led by Chengwei Capital. The Chinese startup makes several models of drones ranging from hobbyist quadcopters to professional aerial photography rigs.

Chinese bookkeeping app Suishouji announced it raised an unspecified “millions of dollars” in series B funding led by Fosun Capital with participation from series A investor Sequoia Capital China. Suishouji is an app that helps users better control their spending habits, and currently has over 120 million registered users with three million active ones. The new money will be used in data mining and opening up data collected from Suishouji.

India-based startup FreeCharge gifts freebies to users who recharge their prepaid mobile phones, direct-to-home satellite television connections, or data cards on the site. It raised US$33 million in series B funding from Sequoia Capital, Belgium-based Sofina, and Russia’s Ru-Net.

East Ventures has invested an undisclosed amount in Valuklik, an Indonesia-based online agency that offers SEO, SEM, and advanced analytics services to clients. The Valuklik team will use the cash to strengthen expand its offerings to paid social and mobile marketing. (Disclosure: East Ventures is also an investor in TechinAsia. See our ethics page for more information.)

BDC Media is best known for the humor site Malesbanget, which has become one of Indonesia’s most popular viral content sites in terms of traffic. Run by Indonesian celebrity Christian Sugiono as CEO, the startup has raised new funding of an undisclosed amount led by Rebright Partners, and followed by 500 Startups. This is the second round of funding since MBDC’s seed investment in 2011 from Nusantara Capital Incubator.

Studio Ousia, the Japan-based startup behind text-linking service Phroni, has announced JPY 100 million (US$953,000) in new funding from Nippon Information Development. The cash infusion will be focused on new products, Linkify and Linkplaza. Phroni was featured at Tech in Asia’s very first Startup Arena pitch battle in 2012.

Tokyo-headquartered Uzabase, a company and industry information platform built to overthrow Bloomberg Terminal, announced it has secured JPY 472 million (US$4.5 million) from a total of nine investors. The funding will be used to drive further expansion in Asia, using the company’s current offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore as launchpads.

Smove, the Singapore-based startup that brings (relatively) eco-friendly cars to passengers looking to get around town, has nabbed a US$1.1 million funding round led by Rebright Partners, and with contributions by 500 Startups, Wavemaker Pacific, and five unnamed investors. The company will use the funding to increase its fleet of vehicles.

Red Dot Payment, a Singapore-based online payment processing company with a focus on Southeast Asia, announced it has attracted series A funding “in the low millions” from two investors, GMO Global Payment Fund, a sister company of GMO Payment Gateway, and Wavemaker Pacific.

We ended August with a big bang as we saw 17 startups get funded in the last week of the month. The biggest winner has got to be India’s messaging app Hike, with US$65 million funding raised in its latest round.

Xingyun, a Chinese niche social network for people interested in the arts and entertainment industry, has just raised an RMB 40 million (US$6.5 million) series A round of funding led by Shenzhen Capital Group.

Itugo, a site that recommends fashion and lifestyle brands to women, bagged an undisclosed amount of funding from Matrix Partners China, InCapital, and a fund managed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Indonesian travel startup Tripvisto, has secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding from East Ventures. The team will use the money to hire more employees and to improve their products. (Disclosure: East Ventures is also an investor in TechinAsia. See our ethics page for more information.)

Hike, the Indian answer to WhatsApp, Line, and WeChat, has just raised its largest round of funding: US$65 million led by Tiger Global Management. Bharti SoftBank (BSB), a joint venture of Bharti Enterprises and Japan’s Softbank Corporation, also participated in the latest round. Earlier, Hike had raised US$7 million in 2013, and another US$14 million in April this year from BSB.

Theatro, the developer of voice controlled wearable communications devices for hourly workers in the retail, hospitality and manufacturing sectors, announced it raised US$5 million in series A funding from Khosla Ventures.

South Korean startup Ybrain revealed it secured US$3.5 million in series A funding to build up its healthcare platform and launch medical wearables.

The startup is applying its know-how to an upcoming headband that claims to slow the effects of Alzheimer’s, a degenerative brain disease that initially leaves sufferers forgetful and confused, before it later shuts down bodily functions and leads to death. The headband entered clinical trials in South Korea last month and is slated for release early in 2015.

Korbit, South Korea’s leading Bitcoin exchange, wallet and merchant processor, has closed a US$3 million series A funding round led by SoftBank Ventures Korea. Pantera Capital led the round from the US, with participation from BAM Ventures and previous investors Bitcoin Opportunity Corp, Tim Draper, Pietro Dova, and initial investor Strong Ventures.

Singapore startup PatSnap has raised a S$4.5 million (US$3.6 million) series A round led by Vertex Venture Partners, the venture capital arm of Singapore-government-owned investment firm Temasek Holdings. It has raised a total of S$6.7 million (US$5.4 million) to date.

PatSnap wants to simplify the process of searching for patents. It has a search engine that makes finding patents easier, visualizing search results as 3D topographical maps. Patents are grouped into ‘islands’ according to technology area, and colors represent different companies. The startup has already gotten over 500 clients worldwide, including NASA, IBM, Pepsi, Xiaomi, and Vodafone.

Singapore startup MyDoc recently announced that it has attracted investors. It completed an early-stage funding round of an undisclosed amount led by August Capital Partners. Spring SEEDS Capital, a Singapore government-related fund, also joined the round.

MyDoc offers a web and mobile service where patients can consult doctors online and seamlessly share their personal health data. It hopes that will result in lower healthcare costs.

HipVan, a Singapore-based ecommerce startup that sells “great designs” in home and furnishings, fashion, art, and other categories, has completed its $1.4 million series A financing round led by LionRock Capital and Skype co-founder Toivo Annus. This round marks the second time Annus has backed the startup, suggesting HipVan is looking promising and hitting its targets.

Spavista, an Indonesian platform that lets consumers search for and book beauty and wellness services, announced it has received an angel investment amounting to S$200,000 (US$160,000) from the founding team of Singapore’s automotive marketplace SGCarMart. The Bali-based team will use the cash to hire a few people in Jakarta as it focuses on acquiring more partners in the capital city area.

It’s raining money in China, as we saw nine startups out of 13 covered in this roundup coming from China. The biggest fundraise has got to be online liquor store Jiuxian, which received US$48.8 million. Congratulations to all startups!

Chinese online education startup Xingshuai Teach received a US$30 million series B round of funding from Northern Light Venture Capital and Legend Capital. Founded in 2008, Xingshuai Teach began as a website for learning Photoshop. Since then, it has accumulated 32 courses, most in the areas of graphics, images, video, and design. The curriculum is a combination of interactive video and forum discussions. Xingshuai also has a mobile app so students can learn on the go.

Major Chinese online liquor store Jiuxian announced it received a RMB 300 million (US$48.8 million) equity investment from a handful of China’s state-run banks, including China Merchants Bank, Minsheng Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, and Jinzhou Bank, among others.

This is Jiuxian’s sixth round of financing, adding up to a total of RMB 930 million (US$151 million) in total funding since its series A in 2011. Previous investors include Sequoia Capital, Rich Land Capital, and Oriental Fortune Capital. It is reported that the company will soon seek an IPO, but the exact timeline isn’t known.

Caipiaobao, a Chinese entertainment platform that allows users to make purchases, enquiries, and prediction for lottery tickets, has announced that it has raised RMB 30 million (US$4.9 million) in series A funding. It currently has around 5 million users on its platform.

Cloud-hosted one-stop portal, VersaFleet, is designed to help fleet operators effectively manage their operations. It has raised S$589,000 (US$471,000) in seed funding led by Get2Volume, with co-funding from Singapore’s National Research Foundation (NRF) under its Technology Incubation Scheme.

Just two months after securing US$10 million in series B funding, cab aggregator TaxiForSure has just landed an additional US$30 million. This fresh infusion of captial came largely from Accel Partners US. Existing investors Accel India, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Helion Venture Partners also participated in this series C round of funding, for which exact figures are not known.

Spavista, an Indonesian platform that lets consumers search for and book beauty and wellness services, announced it has received an angel investment amounting to S$200,000 (US$160,000) from the founding team of Singapore’s automotive marketplace SGCarMart. The Bali-based team will use the cash to hire a few people in Jakarta as it focuses on acquiring more partners in the capital city area.

Research & Innovation is a Japanese startup that specializes in market research support. It announced it has received JPY 220 million (US$2.12 million) in funding from Mizuho Capital, Jafco, and DBJ Capital. Mizuho Capital participated in both previous funding rounds from 2012 and 2013.

BeiBei, which means ‘baby’ in Chinese, is an estore dedicated to childrenswear. It has received RMB 150 million (US$24.4 million) in funding. The investment comes from parent company Mizhe, which is a site that aggregates ecommerce store discounts; IDG and Banyan Capital also participated.

GogoVan, which is like Uber for delivery and removals vans, attracted US$6.5 million in funding. Centurion Investment Management led the round, with several unnamed Singapore-based angel investors participating.

Advertising technology company Adskom received funding worth S$1.06 million (US$850,000) from four VCs: Japan’s Digital Garage, Singapore’s East Ventures, as well as Indonesia’s Beenos Plaza and Skystar Ventures. (Disclosure: East Ventures is also an investor in TechinAsia. See our ethics page for more information.)

The team will use the newly acquired funds for its new data management platform and expansion in Southeast Asia, mainly in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia.

Malaysia-based online restaurant booking site TableApp has received MYR 250,000 (US$78,000) in seed funding. Singapore-based Crystal Horse Investments, as well as former Google Malaysia employee Hanson Toh, both co-invested in this round. The money will be used for its sales force and marketing efforts.

When Lunch Actually co-founder and CEO Violet Lim graduated with a law degree from the University of Manchester and a masters degree from London School of Economics, she was expected to take the usual route of pursuing a career either in banking or law, as her parents who were small business owners knew of the hurdles she might face when starting up.

But just when she received blessings from her parents in her entrepreneurial pursuit, she faced a whole set of new challenges: the stigma attached to dating agencies that prevented them from getting an office and advertising space to properly run the business ten years back.

Friends also discouraged Lim from starting the company with then-fiance Jamie Lee, simply because a dating relationship could complicate things. But she went ahead because she believed that both complemented each other within the business in terms of strengths and weaknesses. Arguments and conflicts definitely arose, but how Lim and her husband resolves them at present day is to be goal and objective-orientated, be it in family or business decisions.

Can an entrepreneur have it all? Lim thinks one can strike the balance between work and personal life, only “with a lot of discipline” and “a lot of help” from “a strong support network” from family. She added:

Actually, being an entrepreneur has actually given me a lot of flexibility to arrange my own schedule to balance between work and family. […] I think entrepreneurs are in the best position to have it all, as we are the captain of our own ship and we get to dictate our own schedule.

Now Lunch Actually is well on its way to open its fifth office in Jakarta, but like any entrepreneur, she didn’t have it easy. When she first started, the technology and fundraising scene in Singapore was not as well-developed unlike now where seed and series A funding are more readily available. She urges aspiring entrepreneurs who have great ideas to give it a shot, as “there’s no better time to start”.

But of course, one needs to have the right mindset and attitude to bring businesses to another level. If she had to pick, she says the thirst for knowledge and never-say-die attitude are the most necessary traits for entrepreneurs:

There will always be people smarter and have more money than you. However, with perseverance and a great learning attitude – be it reading, asking, or listening – you will make it one day. Always be humble, and have a strong sense of gratitude to those who have helped you, and remember to pay it forward.

Chinese luxury ecommerce site Secoo has netted US$100 million in series D funding to help it grow and fend off competition. It was led by previous investors CMC Capital Partners. IDG Capital Partners, Ventech China, Crehol Capital (Mulliez Family Fund), and Vangoo Capital also contributed to the round.

Housekeeping services platform Ayi Laile has received “millions of dollars” in series A funding from Zero2IPO Ventures. The new funds will be used to expand the team, improve its online platform services, and streamline its training courses.

Chinese investment management startup Yingying Licai announced it secured series A funding from GGV Capital. The new money will be used for its expansion efforts, on top of investing efforts in its customer service.

India’s data protection service for enterprises, Druva, got US$25 million in series D funding from Sequoia Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, and Tenaya Capital. This round of funding comes 10 months after it has bagged US$25 million in series C funding from the same investors.

Weather tracking startup Skymet has raised US$4.5 million in series B funding, led by Asia Pacific Limited. Original investor Omnivore partners also participated in the same round. The new funding will be used to take its services outside of India to other Asian countries and also Africa.

Bangalore-based digital finance startup Capital Float has attracted US$1 million in funding from SAIF Partners. It offers loans over the web to small businesses. Capital Float previously raised US$2 million from Aspada Investment Company two months ago.

Japanese social gaming giant Gree (TYO:3632) announced that it is the lead investor in the series B funding round for popular news application SmartNews. Gree has not commented on the size of the investment but the SmartNews camp is saying the total is US$36 million.

Here’s our newest funding round-up. Are you an investor? You might want to check out 8 Securities. It has already raised 75 percent of its intended round and is looking for Japanese investors to come on board.

Hong Kong-based financial trading app 8 Securities has raised US$9 million so far but is looking to bring a Japanese investor onboard before closing the round at no more than US$12 million. Investors Velocity Capital and Leitmotiv Private Equity have participated in this round and were joined by American and Chinese financial technology firms.

Jetbay Jetbay is a soon-to-launch travel site that lists travel destinations and events in English at local prices for visitors to China. The new travel startup has received funding from QuestVC as well as the financial input from 500 Startups that comes with being inducted into its program.

Cloud telephony company Knowlarity has secured US$16 million in series B funding from Sequoia Capital and Mayfield. The Indian startup will use the fresh funds to expand operations into Southeast Asia and fuel research and development.

SocialCops is building a tool that will allow policy-makers, researchers, and journalists to collect, analyze, and visualize data about some of the most daunting social and governance issues in India. It has just raised US$320,000 in seed funding from 500 Startups, as well as individual investors Rajan Anandan, managing director of Google India, and Manoj Menon, managing director of Frost & Sullivan APAC.

Chinese financial product search and comparison engine Rong360 has received a US$60 million series C round of funding led by Pavillion Capital, followed by Sequoia, Lightspeed, and KPCB. This latest round brings Rong360′s total funding to date to about US$100 million.

China’s biggest internet company, Tencent (HKG:0700), announced an RMB 20 million (US$3.2 million) series A round of funding into app-connected laundry service Edaixi. It’s made by laundromat chain Rongchang.

Online question platform Yuantiku raised US$15 million in series C funding from existing investors Matrix partners China and IDG. Prior to this, it received US$2.2 million in series A funding from IDG in 2012 and US$ 7 million in series B funding from Matrix Partners China and IDG in 2013.

India’s largest online retailer Flipkart has raised over US$1 billion. Half of the fresh funds are expected to come from existing investors such as Tiger Global, Russian billionaire Yuri Milner’s DST, and Accel Partners. This is not only the biggest ever funding round by an Indian ecommerce company, but comes close to Uber’s US$1.2 billion round last month.

Last-mile online delivery service Naldo has announced that it got series A funding from Softbank Ventures Korea and Qualcomm Ventures. The new funding will help scale its business and pump up both its marketing and product development efforts.

LiB, an executive job search site for women, secured 70 million yen (US$688,000) from CyberAgent Ventures and East Ventures. (Disclosure: East Ventures is also an investor in TechinAsia. See our ethics page for more information.)

Online grocery startup RedMart has raised US$23 million in a series B round led by Garena, with participation from Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, SoftBank Ventures, and Visionnaire Ventures. The last two are first-time investors in RedMart.

Capillary Technologies, a Singapore-headquartered, Bangalore-based startup that has created a cloud-based service for offline retail stores to better engage customers, has raised a US$14 million series B round led by established Valley venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and Norwest Venture Partners. Both VCs have a presence in Bangalore, India.

Last week was a big week as we saw 13 startups get funded. Some of these are hoping to disrupt their own industries with the new funds in their pockets, and they include Singapore’s MyRepublic, India’s Olacabs, and Korea’s Cloudike. Congratulations!

Chinese search giant Baidu made another step into the online education sector over the weekend with an investment of “millions of dollars” into cloud learning portal Wanxue. Shortly after receiving its series C round of funding, Wanxue moved to a new domain name under Baidu’s existing education portal, wanxue.jiaoyu.baidu.com.

The startup received US$20 million in its previous round from DCM, Sequoia Capital, Lenovo, and Phoenix in 2011. In 2008, it also received US$20 million from Sequoia Capital and Lenovo.

A Chinese social network for mothers has secured US$20 million in series B funding to help it grow. LMBang (short for la ma bang, which can be translated as “hot moms group”) already has 20 million registered users, of whom 2.6 million are daily active users.

The funding comes from Greenwoods Asset Management, with Morningside Ventures, VIPShop, K2 Ventures, and Matrix Partners contributing. It comes 11 months after the startup got US$10 million in series A investment.

Jianshu (literally translates to “simple book”), is a minimalist writing and blogging environment reminiscent of Medium and Svbtle. It has attracted a RMB 5 million (US$806,000) seed investment from undisclosed angel investors.

Cloudian, a California-based company with a major presence in Japan, announced a US$24 million financing round this past week. The firm received funds from existing investors like Intel Capital as well as newcomers Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) and Fidelity Growth Partners Japan.

Tokyo-based Star Festival, the startup behind bento box delivery and catering service Gochikuru, has raised JPY 2.8 billion (about $27.4 million) from and partnered with Japan’s largest office supply mail-order company, Askul. Both companies serve corporate users and will explore a synergy in this partnership by sharing their user bases and business resources.

MyRepublic’s recent declaration of interest in becoming Singapore’s fourth telcommunications company has seemingly not only grabbed the attention of the nation, but of those beyond our borders as well.

Sunshine Network, a telecommunications arm of Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas, has invested over S$20 million (US$16 million), while Xavier Niel, founder of French telecommunications company Free, put in S$10 million (US$8 million). In particular, Niel’s company Free is in many ways similar to MyRepublic – they too dramatically disrupted the French market by offering mobile plans at half the price of other competitors, as well as setting new pricing and service benchmarks.

HotelQuickly, a startup that connects travelers in need of a room with hotels that are in a pinch to put heads in beds, has secured US$4.5 million from a round led by Japan’s Gree. William Heinecke, CEO of Minor International, a large hotel and resort conglomerate based in Southeast Asia, also contributed to the funding as an angel investor.

The round comes nine months after HotelQuickly completed a previous round of US$1.1 million from a group of angel investors.

Japanese VC firm Global Brain announced its investment in Korean startup Mbite, which runs Rainbow.dot, a platform that matches illustrators to game developers and businesses.

10. Cloudike | South KoreaCloudike, a white-label cloud service, raised US$1 million from three Korean VCs to extend its capabilities, particularly in global sales. The round was led by Bon Angels, with participation from Coolidge Corner and The Ventures.

Uber has offices in six cities in India, but that doesn’t mean that domestic players won’t take it on. Bangalore-based Olacabs raked in INR 250 crores (about US$40 million) from Sequoia Capital and Hong Kong’s Steadview Capital to help it grow. This follows a US$20 million round that the company closed last November. Olacabs states that it will use the investment to expand into new markets and invest in supply. Currently active in nine cities, co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal hopes to move Olacabs into at least 20 by the end of the year.

Indian travel startup TripHobo has secured series A funding of over US$1 million from Kalaari Capital. The two-year-old portal lets travelers share itineraries and plan their tours better. TripHobo currently has more than 25,500 curated and verified itineraries written by travelers, covering about 10,000 tourist hotspots in 170 cities around the globe.

Femto Global Ventures announced an investment of nearly ten percent of its US$16 million fund into Plaid, a real-time web analytics firm still in closed beta testing. Plaid claims it will enable online merchants to approach potential customers in much the same way as how a real store manager can observe customers before making contact to entice a sale.

Tokyo-based mobile game developer Gumi secured a JPY 5 billion (US$49 million) fundraising round led by Silicon Valley VC World Innovation Lab (WiL). Sega Networks also took part in the latest investment and will reportedly aid Gumi with further expansion into US and international markets. JAFCO, B Dash Ventures, Shinsei Business Investment, GREE, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and DBJ Capital also participated.

China’s online ticketing service Gewara secured a RMB 200 million (US$32 million) series C funding from China Media Capital. The new funding will be used to improve and expand its services into third and fourth-tier cities.

Vpon, a startup with offices in Taipei and Shanghai that builds a widely-used mobile ad platform throughout greater China, secured US$10 million in funding from a group of Asian banks and financial institutions.

We’re back for a week of startup funding rounds from across Asia, with big winners Meet You from China and Gunosy from Japan pocketing US$35 million and US$11.8 million respectively to grow their companies. Congratulations!

Online food catering startup Berry Kitchen has received an undisclosed amount of seed funding from East Ventures (Disclosure: East Ventures is also an investor in TechinAsia. See our ethics page for more information). Berry Kitchen makes lunch boxes and bento meals, typically for office workers.

KDDI, Japan’s third largest carrier by subscriber base behind Docomo and SoftBank, announced a 1.2 billion yen (US$11.8 million) funding round in news curation app Gunosy, with participation from JAFCO and B Dash Ventures. It earlier provided US$12 million in March to fund a Gunosy television advertisement campaign. Gunosy, which claims to help readers process the day’s top news in just three minutes, is the second most popular news app on both the Japanese App Store and Google Play.

DeNA has been identified as the lead investor in parking space reservation app Akippa. Though the terms of this new funding round were not announced, Akippa’s previous round, led by noted private equity firm JAFCO, was for over US$650,000.

Meet You, a Chinese app that originated as a menstruation tracker that since evolved into a social network for all things ladylike, has secured a US$35 million series C investment round led by SIG. In addition helping keep records of periods and other biological metrics, Meet You also lets users connect on its message boards, which cover themes ranging from fashion to relationships.

Helpshift, an Indian startup that pioneered customer support in mobile apps, has raised US$10 million in series A funding by Intel Capital. Visionnaire Ventures, True Ventures, and Nexus Venture Partners also joined the latest investment round.

Social problem solving service Any+Times raised JPY 51 million (US$500,000) led by gaming giant DeNA and venture capital firm Incubate Fund. The service is currently accessible only via the web, but this new funding could finally bring the startup to smartphones.

After months of beta testing, Fliplingo has gone live to the public with its human-powered Twitter translation service and has accrued $150,000 in seed funding, contributed by its own team members, to help it grow.

Moi Corporation, the Tokyo-based startup behind Twitcasting, this week revealed a US$5 million series A funding round that will be used to increase the live-streaming platform’s presence outside of Japan. The investment was led by Indonesia’s Sinar Mas, marking the first time that a non-Japanese VC has invested in the company, with participation from East Ventures. Twitcasting also received US$640,000 in seed funding from East Ventures in May 2013.

ClearTax.in, an online platform for filing income tax returns, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y-Combinatior (YC). This is YC’s first investment in a company that has its entire focus on the India market.

MyRealTrip, a Korea-based startup that provides the country’s overseas travelers with personalized guided tours in Korean, has announced its third round of funding. SmileGate Investment led the round, contributing 70 percent of the funding, with Capstone Partners joining in. This series A round has provided an injection of almost US$1 million to help the company build mobile apps and expand to include Chinese travelers visiting South Korea.

The startup team behind Groopic, the clever photo app that puts the photographer back into the picture, has secured funding to help it build more products. The Pakistan-based startup’s seed funding comes from Kima Ventures. The funding sum isn’t disclosed, except that it amounts to a six-digit figure.

Light Chaser Animation Studios announced it has closed a US$20 million series B round of funding led by GGV Capital. The self-proclaimed “China’s answer to Pixar” was founded by Tudor founder Gary Wang over a year ago after Tudou merged with Youku. Hillhouse Capital and IDG also participated in the round.

Housing.com, one of India’s leading real estate portals, raised US$19 million in its fourth round of funding from Helion Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, and Qualcomm Ventures. In the current round, Helion has pumped in US$8 million, Nexus invested US$7 million, and Qualcomm put in US$4 million. The current round of funding will help it expand to more cities across India, map more houses, and invest more into technology.

Health-tracking gadget maker Picooc, best known for its smart body scales, has raised US$21 million. The new investment is said to be from two of China’s leading web giants, Tencent and JD. Gobi Partners also contributed some cash.

China’s biggest holiday home rental site, Tujia, has raised US$100 million in series C funding. Announced by the CEO via social media, few other details are available. We’ve confirmed with US-based HomeAway that it once again participated in this round.

Xiaozhu, a rival to the afore-mentioned Tujia, has secured US$15 million in series B funding to help it grow. It comes nearly 18 months after its series A round, which was worth nearly US$10 million. Xiaozhu (meaning “little piggy” in Chinese) claims to have 2.6 million rooms listed in about 160 cities across China.

Chinese online pawn shop marketplace Taodangpu has raised a US$30 million series B round of funding from BlueRun Ventures, Heli Capital, and Northern Light Venture Capital. The startup runs two interconnected websites, Taodangpu.com and 51dang.com. They were both founded just one year ago and currently operate in Beijing and Shanghai.

Bandung-based game developer Tinker Games has become one of three Indonesian game developers to successfully fundraise using a crowdfunding platform. The team launched its Kickstarter project for a PC game called Pale Blue a month ago and recently passed its US$48,000 goal. The game has become Indonesia’s biggest crowdfunding campaign for a game. It tells the story from the antagonist’s point of view where you play the villain and defeat the superheroes.

Appier, a Taipei-based company that leverages artificial intelligence to help businesses and brands push their ads to the right people, has just raised a US$6 million funding round from Sequoia Capital. The investment marks the venture capital firm’s first bet on a Taiwanese startup.

Online finance startup 91jinrong has received tens of millions of dollars in series B funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners (LSVP). The company has previously secured RMB 60 million (US$9.6 million) in series A funding led by CBC Partners and angel investment from Matrix Partners China.

India’s largest entertainment ticketing portal BookMyShow has just crossed the US$100 million barrier in valuation. Bigtree Entertainment, which owns BookMyShow, has raised US$25 million from investors led by SAIF Partners, who valued the site at Rs 1000 crore (US$166 million). This is a three-fold increase in valuation from the time it last raised funds two years ago. Existing investors Accel Partners and media company Network18 also contributed.

Chinese cloud service provider UCloud has announced US$50 million in series B funding led by Bertelsmann Asia Investments and Legend Capital, joined by existing investor DCM. DCM participated in the previous US$10 million funding round alongside Bertelsmann. This round of funding will be used for building new data centers in North America.

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/13-startup-funding-rounds-asia-week-june-23/feed/0This entrepreneur wants to set chefs free by making them their own boss (VIDEO)https://www.techinasia.com/clubvivre-maria-kuvshinova-video-interview/
https://www.techinasia.com/clubvivre-maria-kuvshinova-video-interview/#commentsThu, 19 Jun 2014 09:30:37 +0000https://www.techinasia.com/?p=181992

We continue our Lady E series this month, featuring the founder of Clubvivre, Maria Kuvshinova. In essence, Clubvivre is a platform for users to book private chefs for their house parties and other special occasions. The platform caters to events big and small, from two people to a crowd of over a thousand. The ‘vivre’ in Clubvivre is actually a French word which means ‘to live’.

Clubvivre wants to upend traditional catering

What inspired Kuvshinova to start Clubvivre? Previously, she worked in a corporate environment plagued by busy schedules. She was also bored by the same choices when hanging out with friends – going to restaurants which don’t feel special or inviting people home and having to deal with cumbersome preparation and cleaning work.

She also felt that the existing catering industry often only allow customers to choose from a limited amount of standard packages that are not well-suited for the occasion.

So Clubvivre offers an efficient online solution where you can search for a chef to deal with the logistics of cooking at your place.

Overstretched

Kuvshinova faced a dilemma before deciding on the Clubvivre path. She was the founder of EvenPanda, a platform that lists unique peer-to-peer experiences which people can book. In January 2013, she decided to be “less ambitious”, let EvenPanda die, and pivot to Clubvivre. It wasn’t easy to abandon a venture she has invested much energy, emotions, and time in.

Yet she finally felt in control of her own startup and was thrilled by the bigger opportunity she uncovered and that one vertical she could identify with.

“Stay focused, less is more,” says Kuvshinova. “[With EvenPanda], we launched in four cities through a virtual team. We created rigorous plans and overstretched ourselves. Building a startup is like running a marathon, you have to pace yourself.”

This comes a lengthy two and half years after FashionAndYou raised $40 million in series B funding, on top of the $8 million it attracted in 2010. This fresh funding goes into strengthening the estore’s technology, attracting more customers, and increasing sales.

Beijing-based Splitforce has raised its first seed funding round from SOS Ventures and a group of angel investors. Besides a fresh investment of US$150,000, founder Zac Aghion also announced a suite of new features.

Penang-based rich media mobile ad creator startup MobileAds (previously known as RichMobileAds) has received an undisclosed strategic investment from Seattle-headquartered HasOffers. MobileAds CEO and founder Alvin Koay couldn’t share the exact figure but did say it is a bridge round to its series A.

Social Recruiting, a Tokyo-based startup that claims to be Japan’s number one social recruiting service, received more than US$2 million in series A funding from domestic VC Global Brain. Exact details about the investment were undisclosed, but Social Recruiting CEO Hirofumi Kasuga confirmed with Tech in Asia that the figure was more than US$2 million but less than US$5 million.

Helpdesk software company Freshdesk – an Indian startup that quickly scaled up to rub shoulders with the global leaders in its domain – has raised US$31 million in a series D round of funding led by Tiger Global, which brings its total investment to US$44 million.

Of particular interest is the participation of Google Capital – one of the two VC arms of the search giant. This makes Freshdesk the first Indian company to get backing from Google Capital, which has only five other companies in its portfolio. Accel Partners also participated in this round.

ChinaNetCloud, an internet operations managed services provider, revealed that ChinaCache (Nasdaq:CCIH) has invested in the company as part of their ongoing partnership in internet operations and cloud services.

It’s another big week here in Asia as we saw 16 notable startups receive funding. It’s encouraging to see some startups we’ve been following very closely, such as iCarsClub and 2C2P, involved in the action. Congratulations!

Japanese 3D printing service Kabuku announced US$2 million in series A funding led by CyberAgent Ventures. The company, founded in January 2013, operates Rinkak – an online marketplace where users can buy and sell 3D-printed products.

Car sharing app iCarsClub has secured $10 million in series A funding. It operates in Singapore under the iCarsClub name, and in mainland China as PPZuche. Clifford Teo, iCarsClub managing director, tells Tech in Asia that the funding comes from Sequoia Capital China, Crystal Stream Capital, Wang Xing (the CEO of daily deals site Meituan), Zhuang Chenchao (CEO of travel booking site Qunar), and Huang Mingming (Future Capital). It’s notable that all those investors are Chinese, but Teo says that the funding will go towards both the Chinese and Singapore services.

Philippines-based consumer rewards startup ZAP has wrapped up US$850,000 in funding from Siemer Ventures, Seawood Capital, existing investor Kickstart Ventures, and other local angels. ZAP’s newest funding round allows for its further expansion in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. It aims to expand into Bangkok, capital of Thailand, and Jakarta, capital of Indonesia, by the first quarter of 2015.

China’s biggest Pinterest look-alike, Mogujie (literally translated as “Mushroom Street”), has raised a US$200 million round of funding. Goldman Sachs’ Magnolia Fund led the investment followed by Zhixin Capital, Qiming Ventures, IDG, and Banyan Fund. Mogujie stated it will use the money to enhance customer experience, develop its team, and create an open-source community to support its ecosystem.

Singapore-based startup Sova has raised about $3 million in seed funding from undisclosed investors. The startup was launched in December 2013 to provide webmasters using WordPress with dedicated cloud hosting services.

Cabara, an online marketplace for domestic helpers in Indonesia, has received a fresh US$50,000 of seed funding from Abu Dhabi-based Bin Awas General Services to continue developing the business in Indonesia. Cabara plans to use the money to enter the Middle Eastern market – starting with Abu Dhabi.

The Chinese makers of file transfer app Zapya have secured US$20 million in series B funding from IDG to help grow the business both in China and overseas. It is available in English or Chinese (where it’s called Kuaiya). The app makes it easy for people to share files, peer-to-peer, over a wi-fi network so long as everyone involved has Zapya installed.

Indonesian game developer Artoncode has received seed funding from Indonesian media giant Emtek Group for an undisclosed sum. The two companies want to make and market quality homegrown gaming products and characters for a global market.

Education payment startup PhilSmile this week received an undisclosed amount of seed funding from international remittance service TransferTo. With the new funding, the startup aims to grow its partner schools in the Philippines while also building partner merchants and payment platforms in different countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, the US, the UK, and Dubai.

The developer of Chinese news reader app Today’s Headlines (今日头条), ByteDance, has secured US$100 million in funding. This is ByteDance’s third round of funding after a US$5 million series A round and an undisclosed series B round led by DST.

2C2P, a Bangkok-based online payment processing company, has secured an undisclosed amount of funding from GMO Global Payment Fund, a sister company of GMO Payment Gateway, which also invested US$500,000 into the startup late last year. This investment aligns with GMO Payment Gateway’s latest move to partner with 2C2P as the business expands into Thailand.

Payments startup Fastacash announced this week that it raised US$3.5 million in funding from Jagdish Chanrai, principal at the Kewalram Chanrai Group and Golden Orile Investments, along with prior investors Jungle Ventures, Spring SEEDS Capital, and Funding the Future. The round will top up the company’s funding to US$8 million.

Bangalore-based epayment processing startup FortunePay has raised under US$1 million in funding led by existing investor Kae Capital. Mumbai Angels and Growx Venture Management also participated in this round.

Malaysia-based GrabTaxi, which runs an app-connected taxi booking service across Southeast Asia, has secured US$15 million in series B funding led by GGV Capital. China’s Qunar and Vertex Ventures also contributed money to this round.

Once the news came out, we talked to GrabTaxi and GGV to find out what comes next. Read that here.

PolicyBazaar, an Indian portal offering price comparison and analysis of insurance products, now has US$20 million (INR Rs 119 crore) in funding. It did not disclose who the investor or investors were, but it did clarify that its existing investors are not part of this series C funding round.

The new capital will be used to ramp up technology and work towards enhancing customer experience, seamless platforms, and an extensive range of product offerings.

Beijing-based peer-to-peer car rental startup Baojia announced it received US$5 million from undisclosed angel investors. Baojia lets users lend and rent their idle automobiles, but it’s only available in Beijing for the time being.

India’s biggest online marketplace, Flipkart, has raised US$210 million in funding. The investment is led by Russia’s DST Global, followed by existing investors Tiger Global, Naspers, and Iconiq Capital. This brings Flipkart’s total funding to date to US$750 million, the highest of any Indian startup. It’s previous round closed out at US$360 million in October.

Coupang, the rapidly-growing Seoul-based ecommerce startup, has raised US$100 million in an investment led by Sequoia Capital Global Equities and Sequoia Heritage. The funding will be used to help the company continue its quest to clinch Korea’s online shopping market.

Bindo, the Hong Kong and New York City-based retail point-of-sale startup, announced it has closed a US$1.8 million seed round from Gary Vaynerchuk, East Ventures, and Metamorphic Ventures (Disclosure: East Ventures is also an investor in TechinAsia. See our ethics page for more information). Bindo was our Startup Arena competition winner at last month’s Startup Asia Singapore 2014.

Softbank China is getting in on the action with an estimated US$10 million investment into financial services company Edai. In addition to the P2P lending service that it launched this year, Edai offers traditional loans and free loan consultation. The Chengdu-based company was founded in 2006 and now exists both online and has brick-and-mortar offices in China.

Online rebate and consumer directory platform 51Fanli wrapped up US$20 million in series B funding from SIG China Investment. It first raised an eight-digit funding round led by Qiming Venture Partners and Disney’s venture capital arm, Steamboat Ventures, back in 2011.

The new funding will be used to expand offline rebate services to construct a marketing platform that integrates various brands and their online/offline retail channels.

Daxiang is an online condom retailer for the Chinese market. It has just closed a US$5 million series A funding round. This startup models itself on phone-maker Xiaomi in the way it markets itself and sells its wares.

]]>https://www.techinasia.com/10-startup-funding-rounds-asia-week/feed/0Lazada launches in Singapore with a new site and logohttps://www.techinasia.com/lazada-singapore-launch/
https://www.techinasia.com/lazada-singapore-launch/#commentsTue, 27 May 2014 07:30:34 +0000https://www.techinasia.com/?p=179088Lazada extended its footprint in Southeast Asia today as it officially launched in Singapre. At a media event held late this morning, co-founder and managing director Martell Hardenberg unveiled the new company’s new localized site, Lazada.sg.

When asked about the decision to expand into Singapore, Hardenberg commented:

Singaporeans are increasingly turning to ecommerce to fulfill their every need and we feel that we are well positioned to maximize off this trend.

According to Lazada Group CEO Maximilian Bittner, the shopping site currently maintains the highest web traffic of any online mall within its current markets across Southeast Asia. These markets include Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. It also aims to be the go-to shopping site here in the Lion City.

Lazada.sg wants to provide a holistic and effortless shopping experience for its online customers. It will offer cash-on-delivery service, through which users can pay up to S$500 (US$398) when they receive the goods at their doorsteps.

The current website is also optimized for mobile. Hardenberg added that iOS and Android Lazada applications will be available in June, followed by an app for Windows Phone. He stressed that mobile is the company’s key strategy in Singapore, given its high mobile penetration rates. The team also recognizes that people can use Lazada as a price comparison service while shopping at a physical mall.

Unlike that of other countries, Lazada’s strategy for Singapore will center around the marketplace. Lazada does not purchase or hold any inventory in Singapore, instead, it invites vendors to post listings on Lazada.sg’s Trusted Seller only program in order to sell their items.

Lazada currently has over 20,000 items across eight different categories for its new Singapore site, despite being only two days old. But customers will find themselves breaking their pockets pretty soon as they will be rolling out up to 13 categories in the coming weeks. Bittner added that aspirational brands and a new private label collection will be available by the third quarter this year.

Moovz, a location-based social app for gay guys, has secured a new round of funding worth $1.4 million to help it grow. The Israel-based startup has so far attracted $2.4 million in funding since the app’s launch last October. The app is proving most popular in the Philippines, followed by users in Mexico, the US, and Brazil.

Ximalaya, an audio-streaming startup, recently closed a series A funding round of $11.5 million. According to the company’s official release, the investment was led by big name VC firms including Kleiner Perkins, Sierra Ventures, and SIG China.

HelloMarket is like Craigslist on steroids, with a better interface oriented around photos and a built-in escrow payments system. It has secured KRW 3 billion (US$2.93 million) in funding to grow the business and help it expand from Korea into several Asian markets.

The funding round was led by Korea’s GS HomeShopping, along with input from Hanhwa Investment, Daesung Private Equity, and Hanbit Investment.

Amazon dropped a US$20 million funding round on Chinese fresh food estore, Yummy77. The two sites will remain separate entities, but Yummy77 stated on Weibo the investment will help enrich Amazon’s product categories. Amazon could use this investment to expand something similar to its AmazonFresh grocery service to China.

The number of people who die from preventable medical errors in hospitals is astonishing. Last year, as many as 440,000 people were dying yearly from such mistakes. Among these are medication errors, which is the third leading cause of death behind heart disease and cancer in America. This was why Red Dot Ventures decided to invest S$589,000 (US$470,000) in I3 Precision, a Singapore-based startup whose primary goal is to reduce medication errors, improve patient safety, and increase productivity for hospitals and pharmacies.

Sansan, a startup that specializes in scanning and storing business card details, has secured US$14 million in funding led by Silicon Valley investment firm DCM. The company will use the money to launch its product in the US and extend its reach in Asia.

Bangalore-based creative gifting company Chumbak raised over US$2 million funding from Matrix Partners and existing investor Seedfund. Seedfund previously invested close to US$2 million in the company back in February 2013. It currently operates in 16 Indian cities and in Japan.

AfterShip, a B2B package tracking platform for online retailers, has closed US$1 million in series A funding from IDG Capital Partners. The new money will be used to develop delivery analytics tools to monitor shipping performance, identify delayed shipments, and provide more accurate delivery timings. There will also be enhancements made to its tracking button.

The company behind online programming lecture service CodeCamp – TribeUniv – raised 40 million yen (US$400,000) from CyberAgent Ventures. Its learning platform was launched in October last year, after it got US$30,000 funding from Incubate Fund last July.

Singapore-based Yoyo raised about 130 million yen (US$1.3 million) from GREE Ventures, CyberAgent Ventures, and Incubate Fund. Yoyo is also the startup behind online rewards platform, Candy. The new money will be channeled into marketing and solidifying its back-end infrastructure.

Tokyo-based mobile app developer Akatsuki announced it raised 1.4 billion yen (US$14 million) from Globis and Link and Motivation. The new funding will be used to accelerate its international business expansion efforts. It will be setting up a Taiwanese subsidiary called Akatsuki Taiwan next month to cater its games to Chinese-speaking markets.

Chinese online shopping rebate website Mizhe has completed a second round of funding led by IDG, with participation from Highland Capital Partners. The terms of the investment were not disclosed. Mizhe’s series A funding happened back in early 2013.

Thailand’s leading restaurant review site Wongnai has secured funding from the investment subsidiary of Recruit Holdings. This marks Wongnai’s second investment from the Japan-based firm, following an earlier round in May 2013. The funding amount was not disclosed. According to CEO and co-founder Yod Chinsupakul, the company’s valuation has increased more than twofold from last year.

Seoul and San Francisco-based startup Shakr, which builds a platform that allows you to create videos easily, announced it secured its latest funding round from POSCO Venture Capital. No financial details have been revealed, but the startup has already secured a total of US$3 million in funding that will help the team expand its business to serve other industries.

Remote and on-demand tech support firm iYogi has raised US$28 million in series E funding from Axon Partners, Madison India Capital, and existing investors. With the new money, iYogi expects to double its revenue in the next two years.

Japanese internet company Mixi’s investment arm, I Mercury Capital, announced it invested an undisclosed amount in Loyal Sun Holdings, the company behind Taiwanese recruitment site Job178. According to The Bridge, the company has been rapidly expanding, acquiring over 3,000 Taiwanese companies as its clients.

Tokyo-based mobile game developer Donuts announced it invested an undisclosed sum in Nagisa. According to The Bridge, the investment appears to be worth about US$1 million, based on Nagisa’s corporate profile and past funding history.

36Kr reports that Stand Culture, a software firm that makes various soccer-related apps for team management, has completed a seed round of RMB 3 million (about US$480,000) from an undisclosed angel investor.

Some of you loyal readers might recall that we started a female entrepreneurship series a couple of years back and attempted to bring some visual and sound elements into the editorial mix. We didn’t execute that too well, partly because written content was our core, and our resources and expertise in video production were limited.

Some of you asked whether we were going to bring the video series back, and yes, we’re doing so. We have partnered with a local production house, OHBOY! Pictures, who believed in our mission of celebrating female founder stories in Asia.

We’ve shown a sneak preview to our audience at Startup Asia Singapore conference last week, and are looking to release an episode of this new series (we’re naming it Lady E) every 8th of the month, leading up to International Women’s Day which will take place on March 8. We will continue the series beyond that if we have the resources.

So who’s the first female entrepreneur we’ll be featuring in our video series? Well, most of you enjoyed the piece written by our Singapore-based editor, Terence Lee, on the story about a female entrepreneur who grew up in an all-black neighborhood in United States, founded a Singapore-based online employee benefits platform, and her challenges faced while doing so. It’s Rosaline Koo, founder and CEO of ConneXionsAsia.

Also, a big shout-out to Jeremy Oh, founder of OHBOY! Pictures who has done a great job in understanding, documenting, and profiling Rosaline’s story.

The team hopes profile more entrepreneurs. To do that, we’re looking for cash contributions so that both companies can continue bringing even better content to you. If you’re interested, drop me an email at vanessa[at]techinasia.com and we’ll take it from there.

It was a busy week for us over at Tech in Asia, as we concluded Startup Asia Singapore 2014, our sixth conference. The event saw more than 1300 attendees across the world, including founders and investors who get to meet for the first time. Here’s a list of startups that got funding while we were running our signature event:

Art Loft, an online platform that supports emerging artists in Asia, has received seed funding from East Ventures. The curated platform was started by three female entrepreneurs earlier this year: Tian Qiuyan, Michelle Chan, and Alexandra Eu. (Techlist profile)

Anchanto, a Singapore-based startup that offers online companies a platform to outsource their logistics for a fee, has raised an undisclosed Series A round to expand throughout Asia. The investment size was led by Innosight Ventures, with Cub Capital, Scott Anthony, and Akshay Mehra contributing the rest.

China’s top food listings site, Dianping, has invested US$80 million into Ele.me. Dianping will integrate Ele.me into itself after the deal, though Ele.me will continue to run as normal. It currently has listings for 50,000 restaurants in 30 Chinese cities, with a strong focus on food outlets around universities and colleges. The startup is getting 100,000 orders per day at the moment.

Japan-made social flea market app 10sec announced it has received its second investment, prior to its launch on US iOS App Store later this month. This US$1.6 million round is led by Japanese web giant CyberAgent.

Gurgaon-based social commerce website Limeroad has raised US$15 million led by Tiger Global, with participation from existing investors such as Matrix Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners. This is the company’s second round of funding to date.

The Hong Kong startup’s POS system that merges online and offline operations for brick-and-mortar retailers counting on web sales for extra revenue won the hearts of the judges.

Following closely behind in second place is Kairos Watches, a Korea-based startup that manufactures a hybrid mechanical smartwatch. In third place is Asli Goli, a Pakistan-based startup that helps check for fake medicine using a scratch-off authentication code on the container and SMS verification. Fourth is Facerecog, a Singapore-based startup that uses proprietary facial and signal tracking technology to track facial expressions. Fifth is MergePay, a Thailand-based startup that builds tools for small businesses that help them manage finances.

Missed out on our Startup Arena competition? You can find all the ten startups who competed on the event stage here. For full coverage on our two-day conference, you can read it all here.

As the entire team at Tech in Asia is gearing up for our signature two-day Startup Asia conference happening in Singapore on Wednesday and Thursday (May 7 and 8), we have not forgotten those who got funding last week. Now here’s the list:

Hardware manufacturer Foxconn has invested US$2.2 million into Project Goth, the Singapore-based parent company behind microblogging app Mig33. Foxconn will receive existing equity in Mig33 and get the rights to new shares, which will be available once Mig33 completes its listing on the Australian Securities Exchange. Once it succeeds, Mig33 could end up with an additional US$7.4 million. Foxconn will own 19.9 percent in the microblogging service, which currently has 3.8 million monthly active users.

Taxi booking service TaxiForSure raised US$10 million in series B funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Existing investors Accel Partners, Helion Venture Partners, and Blume Ventures have also participated in the round. The company has raised a total of US$15 million to date, and will be looking to expand to 20 new cities in the next year and a half.

Foradian, an enterprise software solutions provider for education institutions, raised US$2 million in funding from William Bissell, MD of Fabindia, a retail chain. The new funding will be used to add features to its flagship product, Fedena, on top of expanding to new markets.

Chinese travel journal and experience sharing service 117go received US$20 million in series B funding from Softbank China Venture Capital. The new funding will be used for its expansion efforts and branding. Prior to this round, the company has raised from both Redpoint Ventures and Alibaba Group.

Hotel booking app In2Nite recently closed its latest round worth US$2.8 million, which is led by IDG Ventures and other undisclosed strategic investors. In2Nite is available in six countries, namely Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong. With the new funding, it will continue to expand to the rest of Asia.

Shanghai-based, globally-focused education startup ChaseFuture has secured seed funding of US $400,000. The round was completed by a series of reputable names in the global VC space. They include Florida-based Banyan Partners, California-based Harbor Pacific Capital, William Bao Bean of SingTel Innov8, and Shanghai’s AngelVest consortium. ChaseFuture stands out from other education-orientated startups by moving in the other direction, and offering college and grad school applicants with personalized, top-quality admissions consulting.

Accounting SaaS startup Freee has netted US$8 million in series B funding from DCM and Infinity Venture Partners (IVP). IVP has also previously invested in Freee. It is founded by Daisuke Sasaki and Ryu Yokoji in July 2012 and is currently used by over 70,000 small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

Bangalore-based startup Frrole has raised US$245,000 in seed funding. Investors include former head of Yahoo India R&D centre Sharad Sharma, Google India MD Rajan Anandan, and Eka Software founder Manav Garg. The new money will be used to expand the team, add better layers of semantic analysis, build new layers of contextual analysis, and build algorithms that target areas other than media and brands.

Tokyo-based startup Chintai Jono., which is the company behind apartment search portal Cashback Chintai, announced that it has raised 100 million yen (US$975,300) from Japanese investment firm Global Brain.

Vietnam’s mobile content delivery platform Appota raised an undisclosed series B funding from two investors from Japan and Singapore. This marks a new chapter for the startup, which has up to now been mainly targeted at the domestic Vietnamese market. The new round of funding will go not only to expanding Appota’s interests at home but also to targeting global markets. (Techlist profile)

Indian online travel site Yatra secured a Rs 140 crore (US$23 million) funding round led by IDG Ventures, Vertex Ventures, along with its seed investor Norwest Venture Partners. The fresh investment will be used to push the company’s growth plans. That will include strategic investments in mobile technology. It may do this through acquisitions of smaller startups, as it did with Travelguru. (Techlist profile)

China’s P2P lending service Ppdai announced it raised “millions of dollars” in series B funding led by LightSpeed China Partners, Noah Private Wealth Management, and existing investor Sequoia Capital. The company received US$25 million in series A funding from Sequoia Capital last December. The new investment will be channeled towards building its credit system and team expansion efforts. (Techlist profile)

Chinese recruitment service platform Liepin raised US$70 million in series C funding led by Warburg Pincus and with follow on funding from existing investor Matrix Partners. The new money will be used to further develop its platform and R&D efforts. (Techlist profile)

Housing and property broker IndiaHomes raised Rs 150 cr (US$25 million) in funding from New Enterprise Associates and existing investors Helion and Foundation Capital. It will be expanding its operations to 50 new cities. (Techlist profile)

Today, the Sydney-based startup announced that Apple’s former chief evangelist Guy Kawasaki has finished his contract with Motorola and Google, and has joined the team full-time in the same role he performed at Apple. Kawasaki has also invested an undisclosed sum in the company.

With the new role at Canva, Kawasaki will be developing an evangelism program to help it grow globally. Canva CEO Melanie Perkins told Tech in Asia this would mean that Guy will be speaking at events, working with influencers, using his social media platforms to increase Canva’s visibility, helping secure business development deals, and building its content strategy while being based out of Silicon Valley.

Why did Kawasaki pick Canva?

Kawasaki says he is an early adopter of the online design platform. He used it to create graphics for his social media posts and email newsletters. In his own words, he was mesmerized by the company’s vision and desire to change the design scene:

Macintosh democratized computers; Google democratized information; and eBay democratized commerce. In the same way, Canva democratizes design. You don’t get many chances to democratize an industry, so I seized the opportunity to work for Canva.

And if that’s not exciting enough for the Australian team, Guy’s social media architect Peg Fitzpatrick will also be joining Canva as the head of social strategy, bringing on board too her experience as the co-founder at 12 Most, a website of list articles.

Canva in Asia

Since launching the platform seven months ago, Canva has gained 330,000 registered users, with more than 1.5 million designs created using the platform. About 100,000 new designs are made weekly, and double of that amount are edited on. Most of the users come from United States and Australia, with India and the Philippines ranked sixth and seventh in its list.

Perkins has seen her company grow rapidly, and Asia is a market particularly exciting for the team. She explains why she is seeing much growth in Asia:

Countries like the Philippines are very switched on what it comes to visual graphics. For example, the Philippines is ranked 8th in the world when it comes to Facebook usage. With large communities of freelance designers and marketers, these countries have been early adopters of Canva.

Seoul-based Malang Studio, maker of the cutesy AlarmMon app, revealed it has secured KRW 2 billion (US$1.9 million) in funding to grow its app development business. The investment comes from Yello Mobile, a larger Korean app startup. It’s not revealed how much of a stake in Malang Studio this entails, or if it represents an acquisition. Malang Studio claims over seven million downloads for the alarm app on iOS and Android, and it has launched with some localized cartoon characters in other countries such as China and Japan. (Techlist profile)

Coinplug, one of Seoul’s foremost bitcoin startups, announced it has raised a second round of US$400,000 funding from venture capitalist Tim Draper and his firm at Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ). Chol Hwan Kim from Key Initiatives Technical Entrepreneur also had a hand in the investment.

This replicates a funding round that the company received last November for the same amount from Silicon Valley investor SilverBlue. What is also impressive is that both rounds came from Silicon Valley-based Investors, a once rare occurrence for Korean startups. (Techlist profile)

Thai-American startup Eko revealed that it has secured US$1 million in seed funding from 500 Startups and unnamed angel investors. The startup, which was launched last September, is one of a new wave of stripped-down, souped-up business messaging apps. Eko’s apps for iOS and Android are reminiscent of the simplicity of WhatsApp or iMessage, but also add in a few extra tools for enterprise users, such as tasks and networks. There’s also a web app for desktop-based users. (Techlist profile)

GrabTaxi connects passengers with empty taxi cabs The Malaysia-based startup – which has expanded to other Asian nations – secured an eight-figure funding round led by Singapore-based Vertex Ventures. While the exact sum of the round hasn’t been disclosed, after checking GrabTaxi’s ACRA filings per the suggestion of Der Shing Lim who is founder and CEO of JobsCentral Group, we’ve concluded that Vertex Ventures has likely invested between US $1 and $4 million in GrabTaxi, including prior investment rounds made last Autumn. (Techlist profile)

SilverEdge Technologies, the company behind mobile re-targeting platform SilverPush, raised US$1.5 million led by IDG Ventures and Unilazer Ventures. Existing investors such as GSF Accelerator and 500 Startups also participated in the round. GSF Accelerator and 500 Startups invested US$100,000 in the startup last year.

Hotel distribution connectivity and caching technology service provider DerbySoft raised US$9 million in series D funding from the DCM Ventures China Fund. DerbySoft connects hotels’ central reservations systems (CRS) to online booking and search services. The company also works with Chinese online travel agencies, such as Ctrip and Elong, Chinese travel search services such as Qunar and Kuxun, and other Chinese online services, like Taobao and Weibo.

Hyderabad- and Santa Clara-based Ineda Systems, a system-on-a-chip (SoC) developer, has raised US$17 million in series B funding led by Walden-Riverwood Ventures. The investment also includes the Samsung Catalyst Fund, Qualcomm Ventures, IndusAge, and other existing investors. The new money will be used to develop ultra low power semiconductors and software that can be used for development in wearable devices.

Indonesian online store Shopdeca revealed it received second funding round from Singapore-based Polaris Digimedia worth “up to US$1 million” for an equity stake of 33.5 percent. With this new investment, Shopdeca has also expanded to Singapore with the acquisition of women’s fashion estore Eriin. (Techlist profile)

iFit, a fitness-oriented startup based out of Taiwan, received US$900,000 in seed funding from Cherubic Ventures, a VC firm that invests in early-stage tech companies in Taiwan, mainland China, and Silicon Valley. (Techlist profile)

Tokyo-based mobile C2C shopping app, Mercari, got US$14 million from Global Brain, Globis Capital Partners, Itochu Technology Ventures, GMO Venture Partners, and other undisclosed investors. Ryo Ishizuka, co-founder at Mercari, says the money will allow the startup to do additional hiring and marketing to increase its market share in Japan. It also plans to open an office in the US next month. Mercari has over 1.5 million downloads. (Techlist profile)

Jiuxian, arguably China’s top wine-specialist ecommerce site, is uncorking RMB 420 million (US$69 million) in new funding. The startup’s most recent investors include Rich Land Capital, Oriental Fortune Capital, and Sequoia Capital.

The investment covers two rounds – series D and E – which have just been revealed in tandem. The fourth round of funding was worth US$26.8 million, while the fifth amounted to US$42.2 million. Prior to that, Jiuxian got US$32 million in series C back in August 2012. (Techlist profile)

Catarizm raised approximately 200 million yen (US$1.95 million) from Globis Capital Partners and Jafco. The Tokyo-based startup is the company behind online leisure booking site Asoview, and is said to be using the funds to improve its booking management system and increase its manpower for its call center. (Techlist profile)

ElasticBox, a startup that helps developers and enterprises to create, deploy, and manage applications, has raised US$9 million in series A funding from Nexus Venture Partners and Intel Capital. (Techlist profile)

Big data analytics startup Germin8 raised US$3 million in series A funding from Kalaari Capital. The money will be used to fund the company’s international expansion efforts and on R&D. (Techlist profile)

Kuailexue, a Chinese startup that allows high school students to use their mobile phones to take photos of questions that they are unsure of and ask for crowdsourced help, has raised US$5 million in series A funding led by Matrix Partners China, with follow-on funding from Crystal Stream. The new funding will be spent on R&D and expansion efforts. (Techlist profile)

GoCoin, a California and Singapore-based company that is creating a PayPal for digital currencies, has closed a US$1.5 million series A venture round led by former Facebook COO Owen Van Natta and Bitcoin Shop, an ecommerce website that transacts in Bitcoin. Crypto Currency Partners also joined the round. (Techlist Profile)

Sirclo, an ecommerce website builder based in Indonesia and Singapore, received seed funding for an undisclosed amount from East Ventures. The service helps small and medium enterprises build websites easily with fees ranging between IDR 99,000 (US$8) to IDR 1.75 million ($148) per month. Sirclo’s competitors are Shopify, Pixtem, Jarvis Store, Jejualan, and Klakat. (Techlist Profile)

Bangalore-based education startup Skyfi Labs has raised an undisclosed amount from The Chennai Angels (TCA) and Spark Capital. The new funds will be used to expand Skyfi’s reach to cover 1,000 more colleges, increase and refine course offerings to help students acquire relevant skills in areas of computer science, mechanical and electrical engineering, and enhance its back-end platform.

Online real estate marketplace Meiaoju has secured RMB 50 million (US$8.13 million) in series A funding led by DCM. Meiaoju is an online marketplace where real estate developers can connect with China’s middle class citizens, who are snapping up property in other countries as investment opportunities or as a basis to move abroad. It mainly focuses on houses and apartments in Australia and the United States. (Techlist Profile)

Experiential science education startup, Everest Edusys, has secured Rs 5.7 crore (US$952,000) in series A funding led by Lok Capital and joined by The Chennai Angels and others. The startup hopes to deliver students experiential learning rather than plain theory-teaching. It hopes to reach out to children from all income brackets.

Mobile foodie app Teriyaki has received an undisclosed sum from Tokyo-based online learning platform developer Hitomedia. Teriyaki was founded by former Livedoor CEO Takafumi Horie last November, and is a mobile app that curates eateries picked by food lovers. (Techlist Profile)

Chinese mobile content search engine and Android app store Wandoujia has closed series B funding with follow-on investment from US investment bank Goldman Sachs. The undisclosed amount of funding comes just after Wandoujia’s $120 million funding led by Japanese mobile telco SoftBank. Wandoujia says this is Goldman Sach’s first investment in a Chinese mobile internet company. (Techlist Profile)

Japanese home design marketplace Suvaco announced it raised about US$1.18 million from Fuji Startup Ventures and Mobile Internet Capital. The Tokyo-based startup lets users browse and search real portfolio photos to find the best interior or exterior design to suit them. Suvaco partners with 200 home construction companies that make up a library of more than 8,000 examples.

India-based ecommerce site Teabox announced it has secured US$1 million in funding led by Accel Partners India, along with some cash from Singapore’s Horizen Ventures. It aims to put India on the world map by shipping direct to tea drinkers around the world.

Singapore startup acceleration company JFDI announced it has raised S$2.7 million (US$2.1 million) investment round led by Infocomm Investments, a government-linked investment firm, with support from SpinUp Partners in Russia, Fenox Venture Capital in Silicon Valley, as well as private investors like Vijay Saraff, Paul Burmester, Thomas Gorissen, and undisclosed investors from the Philippines.

JFDI is also looking for more and is beyond the halfway mark towards its goal of raising US$4.7 million. The money will be invested into startups that will join its three bootcamps this year. It will put in S$25,000 (US$19,700) in cash investments per team for between five to 20 percent of equity depending on maturity of the startup. (Techlist Profile)

Chinese Cryptocurrency exchange OKCoin announced it closed a US$10 million funding round led by Ceyuan Venture Capital, followed by Mandra Capital, Venture Lab, and several angel investors. It also revealed it actually closed the round late last year. According to its vice president, the company is currently seeking a Series B fund to expand overseas.

Singapore-founded dating app Paktor has raised US$500,000 pre-Series A round that values it at US$6.5 million. Participants include a group of Hong Kong-based angels as well as a private investor that was involved in the previous seed round. (Techlist Profile)

Beijing-based mobile gaming company FunPlus has completed a US$74 million series B funding round. The investment was led by Orchid Asia Group, GSR Ventures, and Steamboat Ventures. It will be used to ramp up hiring and help crank out at least two more titles by year end.

Chinese mobile commerce retailer Maimaibao announced it received an undisclosed amount of funding led by Tencent, followed by MediaTek and Sequoia Capital. Sohu IT speculates this round is worth around US$100 million. Prior to this, the company raised US$65 million since 2006. The money will be used to develop a new smartphone model under its Big Q brand.

Chinese software maker Smartisan has secured RMB 150 million (US$24 million) in funding to help the small, largely unknown startup launch a smartphone. Smartisan Luo Yonghao stated publicly on his Sina Weibo account that its first ever phone will be unveiled on May 20. The smartphone will cost around RMB 3,000 (US$487).

Tokyo-based startup Translimit announced it has raised 10 million yen (US$100,000) from Genuine Startups and Skyland Ventures. The funds will go towards launching a mobile quiz app called BrainWars, with social competition features.

Jakarta-based game studio Touchten Games raised Series B funding from CyberAgent Ventures last November. It recently announced that it has completed its Series B round. The funding amount was not disclosed, and is raised from Japanese animation studio TMS Entertainment, Singapore’s UOB Venture Management, and Indonesian incubator Ideosource. (Techlist Profile)

Bangalore-based online jewelry retailer Bluestone has raised US$10 million from Kalaari Capital and other investors. The company has previously raised US$5 million in funding from Accel Partners and serial entrepreneur Meena Ganesh.

Customer loyalty app startup Tamecco has recently received 100 million yen (US$983,000) investment from Osaka-based Yume no Machi SoZo Iinkai. The latter is also the company behind Japan’s leading food delivery site Demaecan.

Car rental portal Drive.SG announced it has raised S$1 million (US$790,000) in series A funding from Insas Berhad, a Malaysian investment holding company. The money will be used to expand its services regionally. (Techlist Profile)

Early stage investment fund East Ventures will start its third fund focusing on Southeast Asia. The money will channeled towards startups in the consumer internet and mobile space, especially those based in Singapore and Indonesia. (Techlist Profile)

Data analytics firm DataRPM has secured US$5.1 million in series A funding from InterWest Partners and CIT GAP funds. The new money will be used in its business expansion efforts in APAC and UK, on top of scaling its existing teams in both Bangalore and USA. (Techlist Profile)

Online food ordering site Meican has secured US$10 million in series B funding led by Nokia Growth Partners, along with first-round investors KPCB. The new money will be used to help it grow and expand into more cities across China. (Techlist Profile)

Online catering service Berry Kitchen announced it has received IDR 500 million (US$43,700) in seed funding from ANGIN, a female-orientated angel network fund from Global Entrepreneurship Program Indonesia (GEPI). (Techlist Profile)

Japanese news reader app Gunosy announced it has closed a funding road led by local telco KDDI. The amount was not disclosed, but The Bridge estimates the funding round is somewhere between US$12 million to US$14 million. Most of the new investment will be channeled towards TV advertisements. (Techlist Profile)

A travel service for Chinese nationals needing a visa for outbound trips, ByeCity, announced it has secured US$20 million in series B funding led by Alibaba and CBC Capital. This marks the company’s third funding round, with previous investments of US$10 million in 2008 and an undisclosed amount in 2011.

Tembusu Terminals, a Singapore-based startup that produces locally developed Bitcoin vending machines, has raised S$300,000 (US$237,000) in seed funding from undisclosed Singaporean investors, in exchange for a 5.8 percent equity stake. The investment values the startup at S$5.1 million (US$4.03 million) despite having only rolled out one machine so far. (Techlist Profile)

Australia-based automated document processing as a service startup Breezedocs has received a A$250,000 (US$226,000) grant from Commercialization Australia, which is the federal government’s venture capital organization. (Techlist Profile)

Speech recognition experts Uniphore have secured an undisclosed amount of funding. Uniphore make speech recognition tools for five international languages, but the Chennai startup’s speciality area is India’s numerous native languages – it has 14 of those covered. Unlike Siri, Uniphore’s speech recognition savvy isn’t being ploughed into a mobile assistant app.

Shanghai-based pets products e-store Boqii completed a US$25 million series B funding round. The investors are as-yet unnamed but reportedly hail from the US and possibly include Goldman Sachs, which also participated in the startup’s series A round last June. (View Techlist Profile)

The French Cellar, an online subscription service for wine, has received an undisclosed strategic investment from Kyosei Holdings. Serial entrepreneur Jackie Lee, who founded HardwareZone and ClickTrue, will join the startup as the chairman (View Techlist Profile).